Correlates of students’ beliefs on environmental protection: Awareness, compliance, and sociodemographic influences
Paper Details
Correlates of students’ beliefs on environmental protection: Awareness, compliance, and sociodemographic influences
Abstract
Environmental awareness involves understanding the fragility of the environment and the importance of its protection. As population growth, industrialization, and urbanization continue to intensify, natural resources are increasingly threatened, leading to environmental challenges such as pollution, climate change, global warming, acid rain, and ecosystem degradation. This study examined the correlates of students’ beliefs on environmental protection, focusing on awareness, compliance, and selected sociodemographic factors. A descriptive-correlational research design was employed involving 938 students from the different colleges of Cagayan State University–Carig Campus, the largest campus in terms of student population. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson product-moment correlation, and multiple linear regressions. Results revealed that students exhibited a high level of beliefs regarding environmental issues and concerns, with an overall weighted mean of 3.87. Among the dimensions assessed, environmental concern obtained the highest rating (x̄= 4.26), followed by environmental attitude (x̄= 4.09), green consumption (x̄= 3.95), and economic growth control (x̄= 3.84), while anthropocentric beliefs were rated at a moderate level (x̄= 3.21). Significant differences in environmental beliefs were observed across year level (p= 0.003), nationalism (p < 0.001), religiosity (p < 0.001), expectation in life (p= 0.001), and expectation in the future (p= 0.041), but not across gender (p= 0.235) and college affiliation (p= 0.095). Furthermore, environmental awareness, compliance, nationalism, year level, awareness of environmental management laws, and level of satisfaction significantly predicted students’ beliefs regarding environmental protection.
Arunkumar Y. 2012. Environmental education is the application of knowledge from different disciplines to study and manage the environment. International Journal of Research in Social Sciences 2(8), 313–320.
Eom K, Saad CS, Kim HS. 2021. Religiosity moderates the link between environmental beliefs and pro-environmental support: The role of belief in a controlling God. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 47(6), 891–905. DOI: 10.1177/0146167220948712.
Gonzales AG. 2023. Professional learning community and institutional organizational performance of a public higher education institution in Region 02 Philippines. Journal of Education and Educational Technology 14, 346–366. DOI: 10.47750/jett.2023.14.05.033.
Gopinath G. 2014. A study on the environmental awareness among secondary school students in a district of Kerala state. International Journal of Education and Psychological Research 3(2), 54–57.
Hamada T, Shimizu M, Ebihara T. 2021. Good patriotism, social consideration, environmental problem cognition, and pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors: A cross-sectional study of Chinese attitudes. SN Applied Sciences 3(3), 1–16. DOI: 10.1007/s42452-021-04358-1.
Hassan A, Noordin TA, Sulaiman S. 2010. The status on the level of environmental awareness in the concept of sustainable development amongst secondary school students. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 2(2), 1276–1280. DOI:10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.187.
Hong W, Gan L, Xu J, Zhou T. 2021. Survey on environmental protection of college students’ consumption and environmental protection concept under otaku economy. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science 937(4). DOI: 10.1088/1755-1315/937/4/042009.
Inkpen B, Bailey B. 2020. Reliability and validity in survey research: Understanding Cronbachs alpha and internal consistency measures. Journal of Educational Measurement and Evaluation 8(2), 45–53.
Ivankova NV, Creswell JW, Stick SL. 2006. Using mixed-methods sequential explanatory design: From theory to practice. Field Methods 18(1), 3–20.
Jusoh S, Kamarudin KAM, Abd Wahab N, Md Saad MH, Rohizat NH, Nik Mat NH. 2018. Environmental awareness level among university students in Malaysia: A review. International Journal of Engineering & Technology 7(4.34), 28. DOI: 10.14419/ijet.v7i4.34.23575.
Larijani M, Yeshodhara K. 2008. An empirical study of environmental attitude among higher primary school teachers of India and Iran. Journal of Human Ecology 24(3), 195–200. DOI: 10.1080/09709274.2008.11906114.
Maharaj-Sharma R. 2015. Awareness of and responsiveness to environmental issues and concerns: Views from secondary school students in Trinidad and Tobago 23, 79–97.
Nahar N, Hossain Z, Mahiuddin S. 2022. Assessment of the environmental perceptions, attitudes, and awareness of city dwellers regarding sustainable urban environmental management: A case study of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Environment, Development and Sustainability. DOI: 10.1007/s10668-022-02354-y.
Panigrahi AK. 2016. Environmental education and awareness among students: A study on environmental protection and sustainability. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research 2(4), 15–20.
Rogayan DV, Nebrida EED. 2019. Environmental awareness and practices of science students: Input for ecological management plan. International Electronic Journal of Environmental Education 9(2), 106–119.
Skirbekk V, Potančoková M, Stonawski M. 2020. Religion, environment, and climate change: The influence of religious beliefs on environmental concern and behavior. Vienna Yearbook of Population Research 18, 1–27.
Taflı T, Ateş A. 2016. Development of environmental attitude scale towards pre-service biology teachers. Journal of Education and Practice 7(32), 33–40.
Tavakol M, Dennick R. 2012. Post-examination interpretation of objective test data: Monitoring and improving the quality of high-stakes examinations: AMEE Guide No. 66. Medical Teacher 34(3).
Younis KM. 2015. Views on potential methods for raising environmental awareness in developing countries: A study on social responsibility engagement in Liberia. Global Bioethics 26(2), 128–144. DOI: 10.1080/11287462.2015.1031469.
Anderson G. Gonzales*, Cyrus Kelly Macabangon, Dexter Dumayag, 2026. Correlates of students’ beliefs on environmental protection: Awareness, compliance, and sociodemographic influences. J. Biodiv. Environ. Sci., 28(5), 18-26.
Copyright © 2026 by the Authors. This article is an open access article and distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license.